WHIPLASH!: EARLY MAN’S MIKE CONTE ON CHEESESTEAK, SUSHI AND LARGE UNDERWEAR
Hello from the road, Metalsuckers! We’re one week into our tour with Portland rockers Red Fang. I am coming to you from a coffee shop called ‘Coffee Works’ in a strip mall in Charlotte, North Carolina. I gotta be quick because we’re about to take off for our load-in and sound check at The Milestone, one of my favorite venues in America. After starting the tour in New Jersey under about a foot of snow last week, we headed to Philly and partied like it was Tuesday night (because it was). I got to hit my favorite spot, Jim’s on South Street!
If you can’t get into one of these you are no friend of mine. I also drink the peppers like a shot. No joke:
The next night was NYC, Studio at Webster Hall. Thanks to Trevor for promoting a great show. We drank all the alcohol in Manhattan that night thanks in large part to Andreas and all of the bros at The End Records! Nice work, guys.
The following night in DC we played a fun show at a place called DC9. Too bad while we were playing some of DC’s finest crackheads were busy breaking into our van and stealing Tim (bass) and Adam’s (drums) personal bags. We prowled around the zone for a few hours looking for any remnants of their bags in dumpsters, trash cans, etc but to no avail. So at about 3am we took off before almost getting shot/stabbed. It sucked. But the worst part was that I had to drive from DC to Columbus Ohio all night with no drivers side window in the cold. Mega-bummer. And then we spent all day getting the van window repaired and replacing some of our personal items. Tim gambled on some cheap underwear…and lost. They were HUGE despite claiming to be ‘SMALL’. So he decided to wear them outside his jeans, not a bad look really:
The upside was that we got to play a great show in Columbus with Skeletonwitch who we hadn’t seen since doing a tour with them this past summer.
After a Saturday night rager in Cleveland, we headed to Richmond Virginia to play Nara Sushi last night. It was killer, small room, good crowd and this dude made us some amazing sushi!
Okay, enough blogging like a nancy boy. Back to work. North Carolina, Atlanta, Florida, you’re up next. Come out and tear it up with us…if ye dare.
-MC
